Jamie Koe leads Team Northwest Territories to key win at Brier

It may come as no surprise that a man named Koe is among the leaders at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, presented by AGI, in Regina.

But what is a surprise is that it’s not Kevin Koe, the four-time Canadian men’s curling champion from Calgary.

As events unfolded Sunday afternoon at the Brandt Centre, it emerged that Jamie Koe, Kevin’s brother from polar country, is running good at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Jamie Koe, playing in his 17th Montana’s Brier, skipped Team Northwest Territories (2-1, Yellowknife) to an 8-7, extra-end victory over Team Nova Scotia (0-3, Halifax), skipped by Matthew Manuel, to move into a good position in the nine-team Pool B race. Koe needed a cold draw to the four-foot, facing two, to put up the winning point.

“Last rock nerves . . . a little nervous,” said Koe. “I told the boys I thought I put a hair more on than my first and they judged it perfectly. I was just waiting for it to stop. Felt good when it did.”

“That’s the start we needed,” added Koe, 46, who last started 2-1 at a Montana’s Brier in 2012 in Saskatoon.

That year, he went 7-4 in the round robin and made the playoffs before being knocked out, one win short of a bronze medal.

This year, he hopes to go even further.

“It’s been a while,” said Koe. “We beat the two teams we had to early on in the event so that’s good. Now we’re going to have to knock off one of the big guns.”

Team Northwest Territories stole two in the ninth end and looked to have locked up the win, leading 7-4, but gave up a ghastly three-ender in the 10th.

“That was huge, go up three and think we’ve got it wrapped away,” said Koe. “Unfortunately, I missed my last in 10 but was able to regroup.”

As for the other Koe, skip Kevin Koe of Team Alberta-Koe (1-2, Calgary) suffered a 6-5 loss at the hands of Team Saskatchewan (3-0, Saskatoon), skipped by Mike McEwen, to drop into a danger zone in the race to the playoffs. The top three teams in each of the two, nine-team pools make the playoffs.

“That’s a pretty bizarro world for them,” added Koe. “Looks like they were struggling a bit but they had a real close one against Saskatchewan so hopefully they’ve found their game and they can go onwards and upwards.”

It was a tumultuous afternoon draw, which included all manner of wild and weird finishes.

Team Nunavut (0-2, Iqaluit), skipped by Shane Latimer, had a chance to post a win over Aaron Sluchinski’s Team Alberta-Sluchinski (2-0, Airdrie) before giving up a four-ender in the 10th end to lose, 12-10.

Sluchinski was grateful to slip off the hook.

“We played a really good final end and they were leaving our rocks around a bit,” he said. “I felt good about it about halfway through.”

Defending champions Team Canada (2-1, St. John’s, N.L.) skipped by Brad Gushue, went ahead 7-2 after three ends against skip Julien Tremblay’s Team Quebec (1-2, Etchemin/Kenogami/Chicoutimi/Victoria), then had to hang on for a 9-7 win.

Team Prince Edward Island (1-1, Crapaud), skipped by Tyler Smith, had the Group A bye.

The winner on March 10 will represent Canada at the men’s world championship, March 30 to April 7, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The 2024 Montana’s Brier continues Sunday with a draw at 7 p.m. (all times Central).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Montana’s Brier are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/

TSN and RDS will provide complete coverage of the 2024 Montana’s Brier. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. Live coverage is also available for international streaming on TSN’s YouTube channel.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/?lang=fr